Little by little, the podcast has been incorporated into our lives with its own narrative and language that, in the last five years, has experienced exponential growth in the number of listeners and a constant increase in income, with a clear upward trend. In this sense, at a crucial moment for its development, despite the coronavirus and, consequently, the confinement, many people were encouraged to produce their own spaces, experimenting with the format.

For José María Legorburu, full professor of Radio and Podcast at CEU USP, new perspectives are opening for the auditing of society, not only because of the rise of podcasts, audiobooks, or streaming music; and the resilience of radio but rather by the gradual introduction and use of voice assistants, especially through mobile phones, smart speakers and the Internet of Things (IoT). "Both have to star in what could become a new golden age of audio", underlines Legorburu.

Over the last few years, we have witnessed the importance that listening on demand has been acquiring in traditional radio stations through the recycled podcast. This phenomenon is joined by the recent arrival in Spain of the multinationals Podimo and Audible (Amazon). "The podcast has returned where it used to be, recovering its path of growth," says the Radio expert. Even, points out the teacher of the CEU USP, "despite the fall in expected advertising turnover, from 29.6% to 14.7%, the forecasts for 2021 and the following years are promising".

In this sense, according to data from MyPodcastReviews, in 2020 more than a million new podcasts were launched and it happens that a significant number of them were or are focused on the coronavirus. The professor points out that "a recent study by IAB and PwC estimates that, despite the COVID-19 crisis, 2020 will close at around 1 billion euros, well above the 678 in 2019. In fact, Deloitte predicts that, in 2021, turnover will exceed 1,100 million, just in the USA".

Furthermore, Legorburu highlights successes such as 'The Daily' by The New York Times, with millions of daily downloads; or Omnicom's arrangement with Spotify to invest 16.3 million euros in the purchase of advertising space. Also betting on the format of the public corporations BBC (United Kingdom) and NPR (USA), and the consolidation of Podium Podcast, PRISA Radio's proposal for the Spanish-speaking market.

CEU San Pablo University is the first to include in the syllabus of its university degrees in Communication the subject 'Radio and Podcast', this format being part of the official training and not only  complementary or extra-curricular , as is the case with other centers. According to Legorburu, "we have been training our students in the field of podcasting for more than a decade, but until this year, we had focused especially on final degree projects and courses and seminars".

In addition, the term podcast has been incorporated into the commonly used vocabulary that we use on a daily basis. In fact, while waiting for it to be included in the Dictionary, it has already been adapted by the RAE and by the Fundéu with the addition of an  accent. Undoubtedly, points out the professor from CEU USP, "familiarity with this audio-on-demand format goes hand in hand with its growing use by citizens and, consequently, with the increase in its business volume".